01x08 - Episode 8

[bunniefuu]

[♪ "New York [Concept de Paris]"
by Jay-Z playing]

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ In-in, in New York ♪

♪ In New York ♪

[♪ music stops abruptly]

This song, I've always listened
to that Gil Scott-Heron song...

and I always wanted to do
like a mashup of these two.

But I had this idea for a while,
and that hook

added the darkness
to an otherwise bright song.

And it just meshed perfectly
with the third verse,

because that dream and hope.

Yeah, it is hopeful,
and it does happen,

but there's a lot of people
that don't make it.

You know, it was the reality...

-Yes.
-...of the-- the song, you know.

"Lights is blinding,
girls need blinders,

"so they could step
out of bounds quick.

The sidelines--"
out of bounds is the sideline.

-Yes.
-"The sidelines is filled
with tragedies

"who sip the life casually,
then gradually become worse.

"Don't bite the Ad-- apple, Eve.

"Caught up in the in-crowd.
Now you're in style.

Anna, the winter gets cold
in vogue with your skin out."

-You know, it's--
-Anna Wintour and Vogue.

[Jay-Z] Anna Wintour,
the winter time and...

-And in Vogue. In Vogue.
-It being in Vogue.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

So yeah,
it just gave it the darkness.

His voice is just so beautiful

and it's just like,
"Lord have mercy."

-Yeah.
-It's just...

"Mercy on me,"
it's almost like he was begging.

Like, he was like, his...

-Yeah.
-You know.

This-- this also speaks to
the regenerative nature of music

because you took a older song...

-Mm-hmm.
-...and made it new.

-Yeah.
-With your lyrics.

And you took an older track,
and made it new...

-Yeah.
-...by seeing it
through new eyes.

And that's hip-hop.

-That's what hip-hop is.
-That's hip-hop,
exactly what hip-hop is.

-That is what hip-hop is.
-Yeah.

[♪ "The Story of O.J." playing]

♪ Skin is, skin ♪

Yeah, this song was--
always was like...

The song, or the sample,
or everything?

-Yeah.
-Everything.

-Yeah.
-♪ Skin black ♪

♪ ...black ♪

♪ My skin is yellow ♪

"I like that second one."

[♪ music stops abruptly]

Yeah. [chuckles]

-Uh...
-What's the inspiration
for the song?

-How'd it start?
-The original song.

I just listened to that
all the time.

I sent, uh, Dion, No I.D.,

-the producer, I sent him...
-Yeah.

...like a playlist of things
that I was really, like, just...

meant a lot to me,
and that Nina Simone song

was one of them.

And in that one, they were
talking about the personality--

the different shades
of Black women.

I think it's all--
all Black women.

And, um, the story she told
was a painful one.

And then...

I was like-- I wanted to tell
the story of America

and, uh, the culture,

and the in-fighting between us

as a race.

It's like, "n*gga," like no.

It's we-- it's-- don't--
they don't look at you

any differently
than they look at,

you know, a rich athlete.

And then sometimes, you know,
the bourgeoisie, um...

they get into a place
where they think

they're above, um...

the racial stereotypes.

-That's the OJ line.
-And that's what OJ,

he was-- he was
a victim of that.

You know, he-- he wanted to be
the only one in Brentwood.

Like, you know,
"I'm different. I'm OJ."

Like, okay. [chuckles]

That's-- it works un--
it works until it doesn't.

-Yeah.
-It's all great,

and all the country clubs,
and yeah, you get--

you're the one person
they let in.

But wait till you--
wait till you do something.

Wait till you trip up.

It's-- 'cause it's not real.

It's not real, except you there
because you are the, you know.

You've reached
a certain status that it's okay.

-Mm-hmm.
-You know.

And that's a trap.

And really just speaking
about in terms, you know.

"Okay," as-- as far
as the lyrics go,

"Okay" is my favorite moment.

Just the space of that.

"I'm not Black, I'm O.J."

And it be like... [vocalizing]

-"Okay."
-"Okay."
Like the way that drops...

-Yeah.
-...it's just like a--
it's a songwriting choice

that for me,
it's just like, say nothing.

-No, and it says everything.
-And it says everything.

Just the space
gives it its power.

[Jay-Z] Yeah.

[♪ "No Church in the Wild"
playing]

"Your love is my scripture.

Let me in through your
encryption."

Let's stop-- stop now.

-[♪ music stops abruptly]
-[Rick Rubin] Yeah.

-Whew. [chuckles]
-Tell me about the words.

We have to start
with Frank's chorus.

-Mm.
-How he-- he builds on it.

A bunch of human beings
creates a mob.

How he build that,
"Human beings in a mob.

What's a mob to a king?"
A king can control a mob.

"What's a king to a God?"

It's like, you reach
the entire-- that's it.

That's it, it's done.
You reached the top

-of the food chain.
-Yeah.

And then, breaks it down to,

"What's a God
to a non-believer?"

Nothing.

The idea
of challenging structure.

There's no church
in the wild, right?

All-- all good people
are not bad, and all bad people.

We're all humans.

-Mm-hmm.
-Good people do bad things.

Bad people do good things.

-Drug dealers could
give out turkeys...
-Mm-hmm.

-...and priests
can touch children.
-Mm-hmm.

There's no church in the wild,
like, we're all just looking

at our own moral compass...

and trying to do
the right thing.

"Tears on the mausoleum floor.

Blood stains
the Colosseum doors."

All the death that happened
in that place

in the name of entertainment.

-Yes.
-And we as people, we watched...

-Yes. Yes.
-...and we cheered,

and we watched people
being slaughtered.

-Yes.
-You know.

All in the name
of entertainment.

-Mm-hmm.
-We didn't think they were
doing anything wrong.

There was children watching that
and cheering on the mob,
you know?

Um, "Blood stains
the Colosseum doors,

"lies on the lips of a priest.

Thanksgiving
disguised as a feast."

The idea of what Thanksgiving
has been taught to us...

-Yes.
-...versus the reality

is sickening, it's sad.

-Yeah.
-You know.

That's what we've been taught,

and that's what, you know,
we still celebrate to this day.

And we know what it is.

Everyone know
what-- what happened,

the real story of what happened.

But these are the things
that were built up

as holy and, like,
thing in our life.

I'm gonna tear
some of these shits down.

Like some of the statues
that sit of-- of r*cist people

that owned sl*ves,
et cetera, et cetera,

that's-- that's all over
the-- this world.

And it was just like tearing
all those things down.

"Thanksgiving disguised
as a feast.

"Rolling in
the Rolls-Royce Corniche.

Only the doctors got this."
We talked about that, yes.

-Yeah.
-"I'm hiding from police,

cocaine seats, all white."
Like, I'm hiding from police,

because when you see
that car come by,

I'm hiding in plain sight.

But you don't think...

when that car come by,
only the doctors got this.

-Yeah.
-Right? You don't--
you don't see who's inside.

You-- you assume a doctor
just drove by you.

"Only the doctors got this.
I'm hiding from police.

"Cocaine seat all white like
I got the whole thing bleached.

Drug dealer chic, I'm wondering
if a thug's prayers reach."

-You know, this--
back to the idea...
-Yeah.

...of if you've done bad things,

will you-- are you getting
into heaven?

Or-- or are you good?

Forget about that-- that space.

Just humanly,
are you a good person?

-You've done bad things,
but are you still a good person?
-Yeah.

And are-- will your prayers
be answered?

That's right, and will
your prayers be answered?

"It's Pius pious?"
You know, that age-old question.

Which one is it? "Is Pius pious,

'cause God love Pius?"

-It's-- yeah, is Pius--
-Yeah, chicken or the egg.

Yeah, "Is Pius pious
'cause God love Pius?

"Socrates asked whose
bias do y'all seek.

All for Plato--"
we play on money, "play dough."

-Oh, I never got that.
-"All for Plato.

"Screech. I'm out here balling.

"I know y'all hear my sneaks.

"Jesus was a carpenter.
Yeezy laid beats.

Jesus was a carpenter.
Just a-- just a normal man

about the town.

-Yeah.
-"Hova flow the Holy Ghost.

Get the hell up out your seats.
Preach."

Yeah, so it's just
about challenging

the idea of good and bad.

What's good? What's bad?

You know, we're not perfect
human beings, we're just here.

We're spiritual beings
having a human experience.

Yeah. And we're doing our best.

-And we're doing our best.
-Mm.

[♪ "Family Feud" playing]

-♪ Amen ♪
-♪ Can I get an amen
from the congregation? ♪

Raps used to be so--
so non-politically correct.

-Yeah.
-It was so offensive,

that we got so far away from it,
for good or bad.

-Yeah.
-'Cause there was good
and bad in it, you know?

♪ I'll be damned if I
drink some Belvedere ♪

♪ While Puff got Cîroc ♪

♪ Y'all need to stop ♪

-[♪ music stops abruptly]
-Hm.

The family feud.
You know, the in-fighting again,

to go along with that, uh,
Story of O.J.

We always say that,
"When we get together,

we be so strong together
and we can do these things,"

and we never do.

Whether it's, you know,
still psychological damage

from being separated in sl*very,

house and field,
where we had to compete.

We had to compete
for the approval

and to be inside the house.

You know, that's--
that's still in our DNA

like everything else,
like eye color,

and like, you know,
anxiety is in your DNA.

Like, you pass-- you passing
that on to your children.

So, we passing our mentality
to generation

to generation, to generations.

And-- and the gatekeepers

who speak for us
are shortsighted.

And may even have other agendas.

Or maybe just extortionists.

You know,
go to one place and say,

"You want our support?
Give us the money."

And then, go to another place
and say-- you know.

-Mm-hmm.
-So, we're not getting--

We're not getting it
as a race together.

-Mm-hmm.
-We're slowly
getting there separately,

but it's not a concerted effort
of us to align our-- our powers

and our finances to benefit
our community in this society.

I just take this opportunity
to talk about the differences

and how people say, like,
you know, old rap be like,

"Yo, it's better before.
Nobody was wearing dresses."

And we was like, "Yeah,
but Tupac had a nose ring."

Y'all were saying that then,

-and he turned out
to be Tupac, right?
-Yeah.

So, let's stop pointing out
the differences

between each other

and figure out a way
to work together.

"What's better
than one billionaire? Two."

You know,
it's like the idea of us

putting our collective powers
together

to take care of our community

and-- and not ask for things
outside of our community, right?

'Cause that's what tends
to happen.

"How is Pill Cosby
supposed to help me?"

How is these guys gonna help me?
They never accepted me.

They-- they were the same ones
in the front lines

saying, "Rap is a fad,
it's just terrible music.

It's destructive to the brains
of our children."

They never accepted us.

How are they gonna help us?

They never accepted us.

They don't believe
in what we're doing.

They see us as less
than our threat.

You're not gonna get the way
through that door.

You better ha-- we better
create our own door.

We better create
a different door.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

Oh, this whole second verse
is, you know, again,

my love of cinema, and like,
The Godfather and all that.

"A man that don't take care
of his family can't be rich."

That's a line from
The Godfather.

You know, like,
I think Sonny at the wedding

goes upstairs,
and he has, like, a fling

in, like, a closet or something.

And his dad
doesn't see the affair.

He just knows he's missing.
Dad knows his son.

So, when he comes down,
he admonishes him in this way.

He-- he doesn't-- he does it
by not speaking to him.

He says, "Son, you got
a family at home?"

-He's talking to his son.
-Yeah.

But he does it through him.

You know, 'cause "a man doesn't
take care of his family--"

-He says some other thing.
-Mm-hmm.

But I kinda took
the feeling of that...

-Yes.
-...and added the end,
"family can't be rich."

I don't think he says
"can't be rich."

-He says something else.
-Yes. Yes, yes.

"A man that don't take care
of his family can't be rich.

I'll watch Godfather,"
where I pulled it from,

the source material,
"I miss the whole sh*t."

And what I miss
was the first couple times

I seen Godfather,
and I was like...

somebody set him up
for that to happen.

But he was party to it, too.

-Yes.
-He brought that

-to his door as well.
-Yes.

-Yes.
-You know.

-First hundred times...
-Yes.

...I watched it,
I was like, Michael,

he was so-- he had so much
common sense.

He knew that he looked and seen,
"Why are these curtains open?

-These curtains are never open."
-Yeah.

Which saved his life.

-But I missed the part that...
-Yeah.

...yeah, he had to save his life
because of what he was doing.

His-- his actions
still created...

a reaction, and this is part
of the reaction, you know?

-Yeah. Yeah.
-So, I missed that part of it.

You know, "my consciousness
was Michael's common sense."

-Yes.
-That's the level of
consciousness that I was on...

-Yes.
-...that I saw his common sense.

Because that was also
how you lived your life.

-Exactly.
-You were looking
for those types of things.

-Exactly.
-You weren't looking
for emotional...

-Exactly.
-...d-dangerous
emotional territory.

-That's right.
-So, you missed that

'cause that wasn't part
of your experience.

Yes. "My consciousness

-was Michael's common sense."
-Yeah.

"I missed the karma
that came as a consequence.

"They busting off
through the curtains

'cause she hurting.
Kay losing the family--"

-The emotional strain
that it had on her.
-Yes.

"'Cause their future's
uncertain."

-Yes.
-"Nobody wins
when the family feuds.

We all screwed 'cause
we never had the tools."

-Yeah.
-"I'm trying to fix you."

[chuckles] You know, he's like,
"I'm trying to give you

"the tools that I learned,

"you know, 'cause I know
you don't have the tools.

I didn't have the tools."
You know, I'm just

I'm just finding the tools,
you know, uh, in my life.

And I had to go through
what I had to go through

in order to even get here.

You know, yeah, but the--
the overarching theme is,

we have to figure out a way
to pool our resources

to save ourselves.

Nobody's coming to save us.

There's no Superman,
there's no superhero

that's coming to save us,
and we gotta figure out,

how do we take our resources

and help our community?

-Beautiful.
-Yeah.

[♪ "Legacy" playing]

♪ Someday we'll all be free ♪

♪ Legacy, legacy,
legacy, legacy ♪

♪ Black excellency,
baby, let 'em see ♪

♪ Legacy, legacy,
legacy, legacy ♪

♪ Black excellency,
baby, let 'em see ♪

♪ Someday, someday, we all ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

[♪ song ends]

-Yeah.
-That was a great follow-up
to what we was talking about.

-Perfect, on time.
-You know, it's like the idea

of generational trauma
and wealth.

You know, and like,
that-- that line, I loved it.

It's like,
"the Red Queen's race.

You run this hard
just to stay in place."

-Yeah.
-Like, we're just doing all this
and working so hard

just to be at zero.

-Yes.
-And because
of the generational trauma,

that's how far we were set back.

"That charge of energy
set all the Carters back."

It took all these years
to get to zero.

-Yes.
-In fact, I hated religion.

There's the story
of my grandfather

on my father's side,

who had a baby with his child,
his daughter.

And...

this is a preacher.

So, it just broke
the family apart.

-Yeah.
-Like, just, you know.

It's like, obviously,
those secrets

were kept for years and years.
I didn't find that out

till I was doing
The Black Album, like-- like...

-Wow.
-...late, late in life.

How did you find out?

It was like, finally, it's like,
"You know what happened, right?"

Like that type of thing, like,

no one talked about it forever,
and then--

Did everyone know and not you,
or who knew

-and who didn't?
-I think-- I think
most people knew.

-Most of the adults knew.
-Yeah.

It was like, you know,
"She got sent down south,"

-that thing. It happened...
-Yeah, yeah.

...more than we wanna
talk about.

And it's hard
for me to talk about.

-This is my grandfather.
-Yeah.

But then,
even seeing the-- seeing--

again, seeing from
someone's perspective.

Like, imagine being charged with
being able to deliver the word.

-Mm-hmm.
-And these are the demons
that you have.

You know, you can find a way
to feel sorry for him,

how painful and how sick

that must have been for him
to have this gift...

-Yes.
-...and then on the other side,

have these demons
as equal to the gift.

-The gift--
-But human.

-But human.
-Human.

And it's, like, and then see...

the good that came from it.

-Mm-hmm.
-"Someday I'll forgive him,

"'cause suddenly,
strangely our division

"led to multiple religion.

"I studied Muslim,
Buddhist and Christian.

I was running from him,
but he was giving me wisdom."

-[chuckles] You know, "See how
the universe work?"
-Yeah.

"It takes my hurt
and helps me find more myself.

It's the gift and a curse,"
like, took that pain

and turned it
into-- to something else.

Yeah. Without the pain,
you wouldn't have done the work.

Exactly. Without the pain,
you don't do the work.

So, the pain,
you don't say it's necessary.

You don't say you need it,
but if it's there...

-you use it.
-Yeah, it's an opportunity...

-It's an opportunity.
-...for, uh, self-inquiry.

Yes.

-Better understanding.
-Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so again,
another one of those.

This is part of the 4:44,
that's why I don't listen

-to this record. [laughing]
-Yeah. [laughing]

It just-- it goes--
it goes really deep.

-It goes there, it goes there.
-Yes. Yes.

And the first verse
just deals with, you know,
for the first time,

you know, when my dad died,
I paid for the funeral.

Think I may have paid
for the funeral myself.

-I'm sure I paid
for the funeral.
-Yes.

You know, when someone dies,
there's a will left.

There's a-- there's a sit-down,
there's lawyers present,

and there's a, what do you say?
What's the word when--

-Distribution.
-Distribution of assets.

-You're gonna take over this.
-Yes.

He's giving you
the family business,
the house over there.

-You start in a positive place.
-Mm-hmm.

-I paid for the funeral.
-Yeah.

So, you started to get in debt.

-I had to pay...
-Yeah.

...when you passed.
There was nothing
passed down to me.

So, for the first time
in the Carter family,

in our family, we're having
the discussion of, you know,

this discussion is like,
"Yo, take my piece,

"leave my piece
to my children too.

Tidal, the champagne,
D'USSE, I like to see,"

and this is what I wanna see.

It's almost like you writing
a will in real time.

A nice peace-fund ideas
for people who look like we."

-Yes.
-"We gonna start a society
within society."

Did you actually write a will,
or you just put it

-in a song?
-I have a will. I have a will.

But it's not-- it's not--
It's way early,

before any of these things
really meant anything.

That needs to be written again,
but here it is.

Yeah, so the song is really...

-Yeah.
-...closer

-to how-- yeah.
-Oh, yeah. Yes.

This is definitely closer
to how it would look

than what I wrote...

-you know, before Blue was here.
-Yeah.

[chuckles] Yeah.

-Yeah.
-Yeah. "There was a time

America wouldn't let us ball."

Like play baseball,
use that-- that, uh...

"That's major.
It's like the n*gro League.

"There was a time America
wouldn't let us ball.

Those times are now back.
It's just called Afro-tech."

So, it's just like
another thing.

Like, we're not in a tech space.

-No one owns--
no one of our culture...
-Separate. It's separate.

...owns Facebook, or Instagram,
or thing like that,

but there's a small subset
called Afro-tech.

-It's like the n*gro League.
-Mm-hmm.

It's the same thing
that's come back.

No, we wanna play
in the league with everyone.

-Mm-hmm.
-We're brilliant,

and we can play
in the league with everyone.

We don't want
the subset of-- of ideas.

-Another ghetto.
-It just-- exactly.

It's just the same
thing all over again.

"Generational wealth,
that's the key.

"My parents ain't have sh*t,
so that shift started with me.

My mom took her money,
she bought me bonds."

So, my mother,
one of her jobs later on

was she worked at


as soon as you come off
the Brooklyn Bridge
to the right.

And they-- they dealt
in government municipal bonds.

So, that was her access.
She knew.

Like, so she bought these little
bonds for us as children...

-Yeah.
-...and it was like $5.

-Yeah.
-You know, it--

like, and I had a bunch of them
by the time I was an adult.

I think she bought me
some on my birthday

and I was like 40 or something,
like, it's like...

-Yeah.
-And it was-- although that--

there's no money in them,
it's like very--

-it's small money.
-Yes.

-But the idea.
-Yes.

-The planning of it...
-Yes.

-...it was just so beautiful.
-Yes.

The-- the intention behind it
was beautiful.

Like, she-- for the first time
in her life, she was planning--

she was doing what I'm saying
in the song.

And it was a stretch for her
to do whatever she did.

[Jay-Z] Exactly.

But she was planning
for our future...

-Yes.
-...by buy-- buying us
these bonds.

"That was the sweetest gift
of all time."

It was like
the most beautiful gift

because the intention of it
is just beautiful, like...

Hm.

-Cool, man.
-Yeah.

-Thank you for doing this.
-Yeah, thank you, man.

-I love you.
-Yeah, I love you, too.

-[both laughing]
-Give me a hug.

Yeah.

[♪ "Empire State Of Mind"
playing]

-Alrighty, let's--
-Great.

-Let's-- Let's go.
-That's right.

-This way?
-Yes, sir.

♪ Yeah, yeah,
I'm out that Brooklyn ♪

♪ Now I'm down in Tribeca
right next to De Niro ♪

♪ But I'll be hood forever,
I'm the new Sinatra ♪

♪ And since I made it here,
I can make it anywhere ♪

♪ Yeah, they love me
everywhere ♪

♪ I used to cop in Harlem,
hola, my Dominicanos ♪

♪ Right there up on Broadway,
brought me back
to that McDonald's ♪

♪ Took it to my stash spot,


♪ Catch me in the kitchen like
a Simmons whipping pastry ♪

♪ Cruising down 8th Street,
off-white Lexus ♪

♪ Driving so slow,
but BK is from Texas ♪

♪ Me, I'm out that Bed-Stuy,
home of that boy Biggie ♪

♪ Now I live on Billboard
and I brought my boys with me ♪

♪ Say what up to Ty Ty,
still sipping Mai Tais ♪

♪ Sitting courtside, Knicks
and Nets give me high fives ♪

♪ n*gga, I be spiked out,
I could trip a referee ♪

♪ Tell by my attitude
that I'm most definitely from ♪

♪ New York ♪

♪ Concrete jungle
where dreams are made of ♪

♪ There's nothing
you can't do ♪

♪ Now you're in New York ♪

♪ These streets will make you
feel brand-new ♪

♪ Big lights will inspire you ♪

-♪ Come on! ♪
-♪ Let's hear it for New York ♪

-♪ New York, New York ♪
-♪ I made you hot, n*gga ♪

♪ Catch me at the X with OG
at a Yankee game ♪

♪ sh*t, I made the Yankee hat
more famous than a Yankee can ♪

♪ You should know I bleed blue,
but I ain't a Crip though ♪

♪ But I got a g*ng of n*gg*s
walking with my clique though ♪

♪ Welcome to the melting pot,
corners where we selling rock ♪

♪ Afrika Bambaataa sh*t,
home of the hip-hop ♪

♪ Yellow cab, gypsy cab,
dollar cab, holla back ♪

♪ For foreigners it ain't fair,
they act like they forgot
how to add ♪

♪ Eight million stories
out there in the naked ♪

♪ City, it's a pity
half of y'all won't make it ♪

♪ Me, I gotta plug
Special Ed... ♪